Video Ads (formerly in-stream video ads)

Technical Specifications

Starting April 22, 2019, YouTube will enable support for 3PAS (VAST) through a new API-based framework that ingests and serves advertisers’ creatives via Google’s systems. We are currently working with Innovid, Sizmek, Extreme Reach, and Adform to finalize their integration. The list of integrated providers will be available below and updated as needed.

Third-Party Served (VAST-Compliant)

You can use the YouTube VAST QA tool to verify whether your VAST ad tags meet our third party ad serving specifications. You can also use this tool to easily preview your third party served ad on the YouTube player.

Format:

H.264 (MP4) video file type must be included for each video creative (other formats such as WebM can be included but may not be used)

Aspect Ratio and Bitrate:

720p or below is required, the optional inclusion of 1080p is recommended - either 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios are acceptable. (Examples of each are 16:9 - 854x480; 1280x720; 1920x1080 and 4:3 - 480x360; 720x540; 960x720)

If you would like your video to not be viewable or searchable to the public outside of the ad, you can make it unlisted by following the instructions here.

Interactive elements such as annotations, call to action overlays or info cards will automatically appear on the video ad, if enabled. If you do not want the interactivity elements to appear on the ad, please remove these directly from the Video.

If you would like to use a 360° video in a video ad, please follow the guidelines here, and please note that 360° videos have browser and device limitations for correct rendering.